Linda R. Netzel received a B.S. in Chemistry with emphasis in Criminalistics from Metropolitan State College of Denver, in 1991. She has twenty-three years of forensic experience and is currently the director of the Kansas City Police Crime Laboratory.

Prior to becoming the director, she was a criminalist in the DNA and trace evidence sections of the laboratory. Additionally, Netzel has extensive homicide crime scene experience and instructs crime scene investigators on crime scene reconstruction and physical evidence collection and preservation. She has been published in Forensic Science International Genetics, the Journal of Emergency Nursing and CRC Press.

Netzel is a member of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the Midwestern Association of Forensic Scientists and the American Board of Criminalistics.